Bono only endorses international aid

Your headline about Bono's video message to the Conservative party conference (Endorsements: Et U2, Bono? Singer crosses divide, 9 October) suggests a political endorsement of the party by Bono. This is not the case. Bono contributed a video message to both Labour and Conservative conferences for one reason: to urge whichever party is in power after the next election to maintain Britain's admirable recent performance on aid delivery for the world's poorest and most vulnerable people.

At the Labour party conference in Brighton, he praised Gordon Brown, under whose leadership Britain has become a world leader on development and has delivered on the promises made at the Gleneagles summit. At the Conservatives' conference this week, he urged party members to stand by their pledge to ringfence development assistance should they form the next government.

British aid has played a key role in the development successes of the past decade – 34 million more children in school and more than 3 million people on Aids medication in Africa alone. The only message from Bono, and ONE, the campaign group he cofounded, is that the next British government, of whichever political colour, needs to keep up this record.